The USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin. (photo: US Navy) “American Planes Hit North Vietnam After Second Attack on Our Destroyers; Move Taken to Halt New Aggression,” was the Washington Post headline some 53 years ago, on August 5, 1964. The front page of that day’s New York Times reported: “President Johnson has ordered…

<a href=”http://www.fair.org/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin170804.mp3“>MP3 Link This week on CounterSpin: The US locks up more people than any other country, in a criminal justice system whose racial and class biases are demonstrated, and whose entrenchment in the economy is highly problematic. As prison unrest sparks around the country, highlighting conditions that shock the senses, many would like to…

You’ve seen or heard or read the personal interest story a thousand times: An enterprising seven-year-old collects cans to save for college (ABC7, 2/8/17), a man with unmatched moxie walks 15 miles to his job (Today’s Show, 2/20/17), a low-wage worker buys shoes for a kid whose mother can’t afford them (Fox5, 12/14/16), an “inspiring…

(cc photo: South Bend Voice) It’s long been clear that if we want to avoid catastrophic climate disruption on a scale that threatens human civilization, we need to leave vast amounts of fossil fuels in the ground. Environmental writer Bill McKibben pointed out the math in a crucial 2012 article for Rolling Stone: To avoid…

The three most prominent US newspapers haven’t run a critical investigative piece on Jeff Bezos’ company Amazon in almost two years, a FAIR survey finds. A review of 190 articles from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and the Bezos-owned Washington Post over the past year paints a picture of almost uniformly uncritical–ofttimes boosterish–coverage….

Janine Jackson: It’s no surprise that healthcare continues to be front-page news. It is disheartening, though, how little the conversation has changed in terms of the limits of what’s considered possible. Corporate media have an outsized role in constraining that conversation. Producer and author T.R. Reid discovered just how resistant to expanding the conversation media…

Janine Jackson interviewed Karl Grossman about the weaponization of space for the May 20, 2005, episode of CounterSpin, an interview that was rebroadcast for the July 21, 2017, show. This is a lightly edited transcript. Play Stop pop out X MP3jPLAYLISTS.MI_0 = [ { name: “1. CounterSpin Karl Grossman Interview “, formats: [“mp3”], mp3: “aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mYWlyLm9yZy9hdWRpby9jb3VudGVyc3Bpbi9Db3VudGVyU3BpbjE3MDcyMUdyb3NzbWFuLm1wMw==”,…

AP story on CBS‘s site (8/10/16) on how many ISIS fighters have been “taken off the battlefield.” One of the hoariest methods of modern war propaganda remains the official body count. Government or military officials decisively touting large numbers of enemies killed has long been a surefire way to get credulous or friendly press coverage,…

The US government has finally announced an end to its years-long program to arm and train Syrian rebels. The initiative, one of the CIA’s largest covert operations, with billions of dollars of funding, fueled mass killing in Syria and significantly prolonged the country’s horrific war. Widely respected experts have also acknowledged that it greatly strengthened…